a defense mechanism to make itself less palatable to would-be predators. If necessary, it can be safely picked up by hand and relocated. Subspecies Including the nominotypical subspecies, three subspecies of Virginia valeriae are recognized as being valid. These subspecies have been considered full species. Virginia valeriae elegans – western earth snake, dorsal scales in 17 rows, southern Indiana through western Kentucky and Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to eastern Kansas and central Texas. Virginia valeriae pulchra – mountain earth snake, dorsal scales weakly keeled, mountains of western Pennsylvania, and adjacent northeastern West Virginia and western Maryland. Virginia valeriae valeriae – eastern earth snake, dorsal scales in 15 rows, New Jersey to Georgia and west through northern Alabama, Tennessee, and southern Ohio. Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Virginia. Reproduction V. valeriae bears live young in August. Brood size is usually fewer than 10. The total length of a newborn is about 6 cm (about 2.5 in). References Further reading Baird SF, Girard CF (1853). Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part I.—Serpents. Washington, District of Columbia: Smithsonian Institution. xvi + 172 pp. ("Virginia valeriæ ", new species, p. 127). Behler JL, King FW (1979). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 743 pp., 657 color plates. . (Virginia valeriae, p. 679 + Plate 467). Conant R, Bridges W (1939). What Snake Is That? A Field Guide to the Snakes of the United States East of the Rocky Mountains. (With 108 drawings by Edmond Malnate). New York and London: D. Appleton-Century. Frontispiece map + viii + 163 pp. + Plates A-C, 1-32. (Virginia valeriae, pp. 112–113 + Plate 21, Figure 62). Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. xi + 378 pp. . (Genus Virginia, p. 326). Kennicott R (1859). "Notes on Coluber calligaster of Say, and a description of new species of Serpents in the collection of the North Western University of Evanston, Ill." Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 11: 98-100. (Virginia elegans, new species, p. 99). McCoy CJ (1980). Identification Guide to Pennsylvania Snakes. (Design and illustrations by Michael Antonoplos). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 12 pp. (Virginia valeriae, p. 4). Morris PA (1948). Boy's